Round separator systems are used in industry for the separation of materials, both wet and dry. A separator system typically functions by first introducing a flow of material to a porous element such as a screen usually made of woven wire mesh, for example. The flow of material is separated into two streams, one containing material that passes through the screen, the other containing material that is rejected by the screen (e.g., oversized material). A drive mechanism may be operatively coupled with a housing of the separator to produce a vibrating motion that serves to put the material on the screen in motion until it either passes through or is pushed off the screen at the periphery thereof.
Such separator systems may utilize screens in a circular form with the screen tensioned at its perimeter on an annular-shaped screen frame which is typically a metallic ring. The separator housing can be vibratory or fixed and, when vibratory, supported by a variety of means such as springs, bushings or links (see FIG. 1A, described in more detail below). The separator housing is laterally divided into a plurality of cylindrical housing members that are configured to fit together with the screen frame positioned between adjacent housing members. Each of the housing members has a vertically-oriented cylindrical wall terminating in a radially extending flange at one or both ends of the cylindrical wall. The flanges of adjacent housing members are adapted to be brought into close proximity and mutually aligned to define a seat therebetween for holding the screen frame (see FIG. 1B, described in more detail below). A gasket having a U-shaped cross-section is normally placed around a flange formed along the circumference of the screen frame to provide better sealing ability between the screen frame and the flanges of the adjacent housing members. The flanges of the adjacent housing members are typically non-planar and shaped to accommodate the flange of the screen frame and the surrounding gasket as well as to prevent shifting of the screen or misalignment of adjacent housing members during operation (e.g., vibration) of the separator. An annular clamp band having a generally U-shaped cross-section is positioned over the flanges of the adjacent housing members to tighten and fixedly assemble the screen and gasket between the adjacent housing members.
By far the most common failure mode for separator systems is the failure of the porous element. Screens, for example, are typically made of wire mesh or finely woven wire cloth drawn taut by the screen frame. Failure is caused by numerous factors such as wear and fatigue failure. Such failures typically occur as breaks in the screening media itself resulting in a damaged screen. Such breaks may manifest themselves as tears (i.e., a series of mutually adjacent broken wires), punctures (i.e., tears in two directions) or holes (i.e., missing portions of the screening material). Once the screen has failed, the function of a separating system is compromised. At a minimum, it can no longer be relied upon to reject all oversized material because such material can now pass through the break in the screen. As a result, screen frames having pre-tensioned screens are frequently replaced in order to maintain a properly operating separator.
However, frequent replacement of screens which are pre-tensioned on formed screen frames is expensive. In order to provide adequate sealing at the screen interface between adjacent housing members of a conventional separator, sophisticated or proprietary metal forming equipment is typically required to shape and form the various components including the non-planar flanges of the housing members, the flange of the screen frame, and the U-shaped annular clamp band. Unfortunately, the sophisticated metal forming equipment is expensive. Furthermore, in some countries the sophisticated metal forming equipment is not available and, consequently, the housing members, screen frames and clamps must be imported which is both time consuming and costly. To economically employ round separators in these countries, these components need to be more simply shaped to allow fabrication of these parts in local machine shops without the aid of expensive or proprietary metal forming equipment.
Therefore, to reduce production and/or operating costs of round separators, a need exists to develop a gasket that may be utilized to seal the interface of a screen frame and separator housing members which can be economically fabricated without the aid of expensive or proprietary metal forming equipment.